ETA is a leftist group that uses terrorism in hopes of forming an independent Basque state in parts of northern Spain and southwest France. ETA stands for Euskadi ta Askatasuna, which means “Basque Fatherland and Liberty” in the Basque language. The State Department lists ETA as a foreign terrorist organization, and the United States and the European Union have frozen ETA assets since the September 11 attacks. Spain has long fought ETA and opposes an independent Basque homeland, though its 1978 constitution designated an autonomous Basque region with responsibility for education, health care, policing and taxation.
The Basques are a linguistically and culturally distinct Christian group that has lived since the Stone Age in the mountainous region that straddles the border between modern-day Spain and France. The Basques have never had their own independent state, but have enjoyed varying degrees of autonomy over the centuries under Spanish and French rule. About half of the 2.1 million residents of the three provinces that make up the autonomous Basque region speak fluent Basque or understand some of the language. Basque nationalists include other areas with smaller Basque-speaking minorities—the Spanish province of Navarre and three departments in southwest France—in their vision of a Basque homeland.
Mostly national and regional officials and government buildings in Spain. In 1973, ETA operatives killed the aging dictator Francisco Franco’s apparent successor, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, by planting an underground bomb below his habitual parking spot outside a Madrid church. In 1995, an ETA car bomb almost killed Jose Maria Aznar, then leader of the conservative Popular Party, who later served as Spain’s prime minister. The same year, investigators disrupted a plot to assassinate King Juan Carlos. And in 1999, Spanish investigators foiled a truck bombing of Madrid’s Picasso Tower, a skyscraper designed by the architect of the World Trade Center.
In addition to these ambitious targets, ETA has also targeted many regional officials and institutions in Basque regions, and in later years ETA has targeted journalists and civilians. Spanish officials arrested two ETA militants in December 2003, broke up plots to detonate two bombs at Madrid train stations, and discovered two bombs at Aragon train stations. About eight hundred people have been killed as a result of ETA violence since the 1960s.
Yes, but since 2003 ETA has carried out several small attacks without causing any deaths—all the attacks were preceded by a warning call, allowing people to evacuate before the explosion. ETA was initially accused of carrying out the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed some two hundred people, before it was discovered that al-Qaeda was responsible. Many experts believe the group has been quieter than usual since September 11 because of successful law enforcement pressure rather than any moral or tactical retreat from terrorism by ETA. However, since September 11, ETA has been implicated in several attacks. These include:
- In May 2003, ETA allegedly killed two policemen and seriously injured two civilians in a car bomb attack in the village of Sanguesa, Navarra region.
- In March 2002, Spanish authorities defused a bomb planted at the stock exchange in Bilbao, a bomb exploded outside the home of a local politician, and a town councillor was assassinated. Spanish authorities suspect ETA in these incidents.
- In November 2001, ETA killed a judge and two police officers in the Basque region, and a French gendarme was shot, reportedly by ETA.
- In October 2001, ETA set off car bombs in Vitoria, the capital of the Basque region, and in Madrid; the latter attack injured a hundred people.
Yes. In June 2005 the Spanish Parliament voted to restart talks if ETA disarmed; the group said it was willing to talk but not to disarm. More than 250,000 people demonstrated before the vote, urging the government against negotiating with ETA.
In March 2006, ETA announced a "permanent cease-fire" to take effect March 24. In a statement delivered though the Basque media, ETA explained, "The object of this decision is to drive the democratic process." The group also called on all Basque citizens to participate in the political process in order to construct "a peace built on justice." In a reversal of his earlier position, Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero agreed to begin negotiations with ETA despite the group's continued refusal to disarm. Spain's conservative opposition party, the Popular Party, withdrew its support for the peace talks, and demonstrators gathered in Madrid in June 2006 to protest the negotiations.
However, in December 2006, after nine months of stagnant peace talks, a car bomb leveled a parking garage at Madrid’s international airport, killing two men. A phone call to authorities in advance of the attack acknowledged ETA’s responsibility for the bombing. In June 2007, ETA announced an end to the cease-fire amid reports that the group was planning attacks for later in the summer. Though ETA’s strength has waned over the years, experts warn the separatists can still prove disruptive and lethal.
In 1959, young activists angered by the dictator Franco’s suppression of the Basque language and culture and frustrated with moderate Basque nationalist organizations came together to form ETA. The group soon embraced a revolutionary Marxist ideology and that same year, planted bombs in several cities in Spain.
No. ETA’s secular nationalist agenda has nothing to do with the Islamist fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network, and there is no credible evidence of any systematic cooperation between ETA and al-Qaeda, experts say. But al-Qaeda cells have been discovered in Spain. In November 2001, Spanish authorities arrested eight men suspected of being al-Qaeda operatives involved in the September 11 attacks. One of these men reportedly had past links with ETA’s unofficial political wing, Batasuna, which the Spanish Supreme Court banned in March 2003. In September 2003, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon said the September 11 attacks were partially planned in Spain.
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